FRENZIED FINANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17881, 8 September 1921, Page 5

FRENZIED FINANCE.

AMERICAN REVELATIONS.

GREAT TRUST SWINDLE.

VANCOUVER. Aug. 25. Authorities estimate that the nationwide swindling operations alleged to have been carr.ed out by a gang headed by John V\ orthington and Charles French may aggregate £13,513,500. Most lemarkable revelations of frenzied finance are developing. A safety deposit vault was found in Cleveland (Ohio) containing securities worth £2,432,400 obtained from 27 firms.

Miss Lieberman, an alert business woman of 25, told officials that French took over the American Rubber Company Incorporation for £3240, and raised the capita! stock to £270,000. He induced the Camber of Commerce of Centralia, a small town in Illinois, to invest £15,000 cash, on a promise to build a factory there, but the now factory was never buiit. Wonderful pictures of factories which did not exist were circulated broadcast, and immense sales of stock were made on the strength of these. The story reads exactly like the Wallingford yarns published a few years a<*o by the American novelist. °

The police regard the operations of the gang as the greatest swindle on record. Colonel Clinnin, the United States attorney, in charge of the investigation, fixes £10,000,000 as a conservative estimate of the amount involved.

Twenty companies were organised with a total capital of £4,000.000. The purchase of a chain of banks from New York to San Francisco, without the investment of any money, to handle spurious notes was contemplated.